♪ The streets and sins ♪
- Good scene, Brother Paul.
Could you open us up with a word of prayer?
Man, our second song is song number 17, "One Day."
Song number 17, "One Day."
Verse 17, let's sing it together on the first.
♪ One day when Heads came for a scion ♪
♪ Jesus is mine ♪
- Welcome back.
The verse of the week is Luke 14, verse 26.
Luke 14, verse 26.
"If any man come and hate not his father,
"and mother, and wife, and child, and brethren,
"and sisters, yay, and his own life also,
"he cannot be my disciple."
That is Luke 14, verse 26.
Service time starts at 10.30 in the morning,
and 3.30 in the afternoon,
with the Wednesday evening Bible study at 6.30.
Soil warnings was one p.m. today, and 12.30 on Saturday.
Soil warning only today,
but we still have a total of seven for January so far.
Upcoming, just please remember
that we're doing the New Testament challenge,
which is nine chapters a day in the month of January,
and you will finish the whole New Testament
in less than one month.
So keeping up, if not, too late to get caught up.
And remember, if you have caught up,
you're past the hardest part.
It's pretty much downhill from here.
Coming up January 13th will be the next homeschool day.
It'll be 11 a.m., hopefully you've already SVP,
but it will be here in the church at 11 a.m.
February 14th will be the married couple's
sweetheart banquet.
That'll be at 4 p.m., food fellowship,
and not so newlywed games.
So looking forward, it's fun every year.
And kids, if you wanna receive a reward for memory verse,
remember it's still Proverbs 12 verse 22.
Lying lips are an abomination, Lord,
but they that deal truly are his delight.
Rules are the same, tithing is down below.
And if you have any further prayer requests,
please let the topist know,
they will get it into the bulletin.
But with that, let's turn to the Lord in prayer.
Next song is song number 411, "Hold the Fort."
Song number 411, "Hold the Fort."
411, let's sing it together on the first.
♪ Oh, my comrade, see the signal ♪
♪ A sky of forcements now here still ♪
The offering first.
Good afternoon, every foundation Baptist.
Text this evening is Ephesians chapter six.
And as always, here at our church,
we read the entire chapter before the preaching.
Ephesians chapter six, the Bible reads,
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord,
"for this is right.
"Honor thy father and mother,
"which is the first commandment with promise,
"that it may be well with thee,
"and thou mayest live long on the earth.
"And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath,
"but bring them up in the nurture
"and admonition of the Lord.
"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters
"according to the flesh, with fear and trembling,
"in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.
"Not with eye service, as men pleasers,
"but as the servants of Christ,
"doing the will of God from the heart,
"with good will doing service as to the Lord,
"and not to men.
"Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth,
"the same shall he receive of the Lord,
"whether he be bond or free.
"And ye masters, do the same things unto them,
"for bearing threatenings.
"Knowing that your master also is in heaven,
"neither is there respect of persons with him.
"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord,
"and in the power of his might.
"Put on the whole armor of God,
"that ye may be able to stand
"against the wiles of the devil.
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
"but against principalities, against powers,
"against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
"against spiritual wickedness in high places.
"Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God,
"that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day,
"and having done all, to stand.
"Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,
"and having on the breastplate of righteousness,
"and your feet shod with the preparation
"of the gospel of peace.
"Above all, taking the shield of faith,
"wherewith ye shall be able to quench
"all the fiery darts of the wicked,
"and take the helmet of salvation,
"and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
"praying always with prayer and supplication
"in the Spirit, and watching thereunto
"with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
"And for me, utterance may be given unto me,
"that I may open my mouth boldly
"to make known the mystery of the gospel,
"for which I am an ambassador in bonds,
"that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak,
"but that ye also may know my affairs and how I do.
"Ticicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord
"shall make known to all things,
"whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose,
"that ye might know our affairs,
"and that he might comfort your hearts.
"Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith
"from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ
"in sincerity, amen."
Brother Jake, could you please pray for the preaching?
- Amen, all right, so we're here
in Ephesians chapter number six.
If you wanna go ahead and take a look at verse number 10,
the Bible reads, "Finally, my brethren,
"be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might,
"put on the whole armor of God
"that ye may be able to stand
"against the wiles of the devil."
And the title of my sermon tonight
is gonna be a pretty generic title,
it's just gonna be "The Armor of God."
Not going fancy on the titles,
there's probably a million sermons out there
titled "The Armor of God."
It's a good title, though.
And I think "The Armor of God" is a great subject.
I can't remember the last time that it was preached on here,
so I figured that this would be,
it's kind of the beginning of the year 2026,
so I think it's just a great time to have a basic sermon
on putting on the armor of God,
and that's something that we all need to do.
I believe that putting on the armor of God
is not something that you just kind of do once,
that once you have eternal life, you can't lose it
because you can't be unborn.
And I have three children and I can't unborn them, I try.
So that happens one time in your life, right?
You get saved, you're born again one time,
and there's other various things that are that way,
but putting on the armor, having the armor of God on
is not something that happens just one time.
You don't just put on the armor of God one day,
and then it's just on you for the rest of your life.
And if you think about it, you know,
if you were a medieval soldier, you know,
you would probably, you put it on every morning
when you go out to fight,
you'd put on all these different pieces of armor, right?
And then when you're done fighting at the end of the day,
you'd probably take it off again, right?
And then, 'cause they're probably not just sleeping,
you know, you probably didn't have like nights,
you know, sleeping in their bed just in their armor, right?
So, you know, it's something that you need to put on
every single day.
And in Romans 13, 14, it says,
"But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,
"and make not provision for the flesh
"to fulfill the lusts thereof."
So the core of the Bible, you know,
we need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
like in the same way that we need to put on
the armor of God, right?
And again, this is something that we need to reoccur
every single day, we need to do every single day,
just kind of like we need to take up our cross daily.
We need to do that every single day.
We need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ every day.
We need to put on the armor of God every day.
And I want everyone to notice that,
what are we putting on here?
We're putting on armor.
Now, what is armor for?
Why would anybody put on armor?
It's because they're about to go into a fight, right?
And we need to remember as Christians
that we're in a spiritual battle.
I mean, the Bible says, "Fight the good fight of faith."
Amen.
And so we're engaged in spiritual warfare
against evilness and darkness in this world, okay?
We're engaged in spiritual warfare
against false doctrine, right?
But we're also engaged in spiritual warfare
against our own flesh, amen?
And so, you know, the Christian life,
a lot of the times it's a fight, it's a battle.
That's why we require armor.
That's why we need to be putting on this spiritual armor.
Now let's go here to verse number 12.
We'll continue on, it says,
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
"but against principalities, against powers,
"against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
"against spiritual wickedness in high places."
And of course, a lot of times, you know,
we'll refer to the fact that, hey,
there's wicked people that are in authority
in different nations and whatnot, in places of power.
But, you know, also we need to think about the fact
that there's evil people in places of influence,
and they are influencing our culture,
you know, and the way that people think.
And, you know, this is part of what we have to fight
and battle against as Christians.
You know, you think about, you know,
things in our culture,
like the fact that for the last, you know,
I don't know how long this has been going on,
but I'm sure it's been going on
since like the '60s or the '70s.
But in all of these like sitcom TV shows,
one of the main goals of these shows
is to make the father look like a complete idiot.
Like he has no idea what he's talking about.
You know, I think of like Homer Simpson.
You know, he's the dad, right?
But he, like, his eyes don't even,
you know, doesn't he have like a lazy eye?
I don't know, but he has these giant bug eyes
and he's like, you know, oh, I didn't know, you know.
But it's just like, it's a comical, you know,
it's funny and we like, you know,
people laugh at it or whatever.
But why is he like that?
Why is Homer Simpson just this dumb idiot?
You know, well, it's because that's one of the goals
of the devil is to make fathers look like idiots,
look like morons.
So the people won't respect them.
People, you know, won't look at them as people
that we need to look up to and like, you know,
hey, this is the authority and he knows what he's talking
about, you know, and we need to follow him spiritually.
They want to degrade that, right?
The one, one of the devil's goals is to degrade,
you know, biblical leadership.
And fathers are supposed to be the biblical leaders
of their home.
They're supposed to be the spiritual leaders of their home.
And so what does the devil want to do?
He wants to undermine that, okay?
And so, you know, that's just kind of an example
of spiritual wickedness in high places, right?
Because, you know, it's not, it's not just Joe Biden
or Donald Trump or George Bush.
You know, it's everywhere in society.
It's, you know, it's the Hollywood executive
that is pushing, you know, all of these weird ideologies
into people's minds over decades and decades
and decades and decades and decades.
And so, you know, we're fighting against, you know,
these spiritual wickedness in high places
and against these principalities and against these rulers,
against anything that basically is,
that exalts itself against God, right?
Anything that's coming against God and His doctrine,
we need to be fighting against those things, right?
And that, you know, a specific example like that,
you know, that's kind of,
it's basically a doctrinal battle, right?
That happens in people's minds.
And so, you know, God has made the Father,
the spiritual leader in a household,
and then the devil wants to assault that.
But we need to combat that with sound doctrine, right,
with, and how do we do that?
Well, part of that is putting on the armor of God.
So let's continue on here.
Says in verse number 13, it says,
"Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God,
that ye may be able to withstand the evil day,
and having done all to stand."
So according to the Bible here,
there basically, there's an evil day coming.
Now, you know, what is this evil day?
Well, it could be a lot of different things,
and it could be different things for different people.
But the evil day is basically a day that comes
that is gonna test your faith,
that is gonna test out whether or not
are you gonna continue to serve God or not, right?
And there's the evil.
I don't wanna give like any specifics
because the evil day could manifest itself
in so many different ways, right?
There's no really way to quantify
all the different ways of that.
But the evil day is basically when there's a decision
where it's like, okay, am I gonna continue serving God
or not, right?
And so, and look, I think this,
I believe this day probably comes multiple times
in everybody's lives.
Maybe it comes, and there's probably different magnitudes
of this, right?
I mean, it's not like, it's not the evil day
unless it hits a 10 on the Richter scale or whatever.
You know what I mean?
And it could be something that's kind of like reoccurring
or whatever, or maybe something that's not like a 10.
It's just this like minor deal, right?
But it's something that's gonna cause you
to stop serving God.
And we need to prepare ourselves
to be able to withstand and to stand in the evil day.
Because look, living a godly Christian life
for your entire life is a challenge.
It's not something that's just easily done.
It's not like floating down.
How many of you have ever like
floated down the river in their life?
I have, and it's a lot of fun, right?
Sometimes you get like an inner tube
or just whatever flotation of ice
and you just kind of float down the river.
And you're just like, ah, you know, it's wonderful.
And then there's a waterfall and it's like,
okay, well now we gotta get out
before we go down the waterfall and I'll perish.
But it's a very relaxing time
where you just sit back and relax.
You're just floating down the river.
Now, the Christian life,
that's not a picture of the Christian life, okay?
You know, a better picture of the Christian life
is somebody paddling upstream, you know,
and there's some rapids,
and they gotta paddle up the rapids
and they just gotta keep on going, right?
You know, being a Christian and living the Christian life
is not like being like a dead salmon floating downstream.
It's like being a live salmon that's swimming upstream, okay?
And they're fighting against the current.
And you know, the white man has put all these dams
in the river, you know?
And so it's making it more difficult to be a salmon.
And you know, the devil, the devil is white.
No, I'm just kidding.
Although the Bible does say that the devil
is turned into an angel of light, right?
So, all right, all right.
We're going into the wrong character here.
But living the Christian life is like,
you have to swim upstream.
It's difficult, right?
It's a challenge.
Things happen.
You go through different battles in the Christian life.
Stuff that you wouldn't think would be a problem
is a problem.
And things that you wouldn't have thought are going to happen,
they happen.
And so staying in the Christian life is a challenge.
And so in order to stay in the Christian life,
putting on the armor of God, putting it all on,
is a necessity.
You have to put on the entire armor of God
in order to successfully live the Christian life.
And I'm pretty sure everybody here today
wants to live the Christian life until the day that they die.
I mean, I don't think anybody here is like,
well, you know, I'm gonna put in my 20 years,
you know, in the Christian union, get my retirement,
you know, get my pension, and then I'm out,
you know, after 20 years or whatever.
No, I mean, I'm pretty sure everybody here,
if we had a survey, well, I put out the survey,
and like, hey, how many of you wanna live the Christian life
all the way to the end?
Pretty sure most everyone's gonna say like,
yeah, I do, I do, you know, and survey says,
you know, everybody does, everybody wants that, right?
And so, you know, but, you know,
if we were to fast forward, you know, 30 years from now,
it's very possible that not everybody has made it
to, you know, 30 years or whatever.
You know, and we've had people here
that were living the Christian life,
they were serving God, and now they're gone.
And it's like, well, where'd they go?
Well, they washed out in the Christian life,
and you know, probably part of the problem
is that they didn't have the entire armor of God on, okay?
And so, you know, life is a battle.
We're living the Christian life as a battle.
It's a war.
Things happen.
We have to have on the armor of God
in order to withstand in the evil day.
And you know, when the evil day comes,
it specifically says, it says,
withstand and having done all to stand.
Now, you know, in the Christian life,
what we want to be doing,
the vast majority of the time is moving forward, right?
We're on offensive move.
We're attacking the gates of hell, right?
And the gates of hell, that's a defensive structure.
So we're attacking them.
We're on the offensive.
We want to have our phalanx ready to go
and we're just pushing forward, right?
That's what we want to do.
But look, you know, sometimes in the Christian life,
the evil day comes and you're not necessarily
even trying to make forward progress.
You're just trying to stand.
You're just staying where you are.
And according to the Bible here,
in order sometimes in the evil day,
in order to just stand and withstand,
you need to have the entire armor of God on, all right?
And even when you have the entire armor of God on,
you're still not making forward progress.
You're just staying the same, okay?
And so it's critical that we have
on the entire armor of God.
Let's see, look at verse number 14, it says,
"Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth
"and having on the breastplate of righteousness
"and your feet shod with the preparation
"of the gospel of peace."
So the first thing we have here
is having your loins girt about with truth.
And the Bible says in 1 Timothy 3.15, it says,
"But if I tarry long, that thou mayst know
"how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God,
"which is the church of the living God,
"the pillar and ground of the truth."
And so, you know, the truth,
according to the Bible is a very important thing, okay?
And, you know, having the truth,
it's like having true doctrine, okay?
And, you know, and that's gonna protect kind of your loins.
And I've heard a lot of people put it the way
that basically it kind of holds everything together, right?
It keeps, you know, if we think about our belt today,
what does your belt do?
Well, basically it holds your pants up
and it keeps your shirt tucked in
and it kind of holds everything together, right?
And so the truth is they're basically kind of
to hold everything together.
And it keeps, you know, it keeps certain parts
that shouldn't be exposed from getting exposed, amen.
And, you know, there's a lot of churches out there,
you know, they largely have a lot of doctrine correct,
but then they're kind of loose.
They're kind of loosey-goosey
when it comes to certain doctrines.
You know, and there's a couple of doctrines
that just kind of really come to mind, you know,
and me and Ryan were talking about this earlier,
is that, you know, one of them is being right on the Jews.
Okay, now we talk about this, probably, you know,
I'm not going to say too much because, you know,
I don't think we talk about it too much,
but we talk about it just right about.
We have the Goldilocks amount
of talking about the Jews at this church.
It's not too much, it's not too little, it's just right.
So I don't want to hear any complaints
about how much we talk about the Jews here.
But, you know, they've got it wrong on the Jews, my friend.
The old IFB has it wrong in the Jews.
They think they've still got chosen people, they're not.
And, you know, what me and Ryan were talking about
is the fact that, the fact that they have that wrong.
You know, the world, even the unsaved world
is observing this, right?
And it's making them look bad.
You know, it's kind of like looking at, you know,
like a gangster who's walking down the street
and their pants are sagging.
You know, you drive by and some guy's like,
walking like this, you know, and his feet are all spread out
to try and prevent his sweatpants from going down further.
You know, you drive by, what are you thinking?
You're like, that guy needs a belt.
He needs to put a belt on.
What's wrong with him?
You know, and it's like, you know,
I cannot understand that culture.
You know, what causes people to wear their pants like that?
I don't know.
You know, it's just, it's bizarre, it's strange.
You know, I saw like a little clip of, you know,
somebody kind of making fun of that,
where they're like, you know, one guy he has,
it's like a little bit down,
and then somebody else is like way down,
then somebody's like, it's around their ankles,
and then another guy has pants on a string
attached to his shoe or whatever.
He was like, "Yeah, I'm really, you know, gangster,"
or whatever, I don't know.
It's like, it's like, what, what is that?
But that's what it looks like
when people have obvious doctrine wrong, right?
And it's like, you know, this, you know,
I preached a sermon a couple of years ago
called "Consequences of False Doctrine,"
and it's like the whole, like even the unsaved world,
they're just like looking at the consequences of Zionism.
They're just observing it.
They're like, okay, so Christians that believe
in Christian Zionism where they believe that God's,
the Jews are God's chosen people
and the land over there belongs to them,
they could just, they're like,
oh, well that's causing all these little children
to be bombed.
Hmm, I don't really like Christianity that much
or whatever, you know, put the bad taste in their mouth.
And so there's, you know, again,
there's consequences for these false doctrines,
but it's making them look bad.
You know, I have never driven by somebody
that has their pants sagging and thought,
he's looking good.
I've never thought that, you know,
but that's what false doctrine will do,
especially doctrines like that,
that are kind of major doctrines
that have actual real implications in the real world.
You know, it's a false doctrine that's making them look bad.
You know, how about this?
How about, oh, we need to get the pedophile safe.
How about that?
How about, oh, I saw a bumper sticker that said,
the only good pedophile is a dead pedophile.
But I don't believe that.
I want the pedophiles to get saved because I'm so nice
and I'm so righteous and I'm nicer than God.
You know what that doctrine does?
That doctrine, for one, it makes you look bad
because you're sticking up for pedophiles.
And you know what?
Again, this is another one where it's like,
even the unsaved world largely gets this right.
You know, I would see like memes or whatever on Facebook
of it's like, hey, I found some pills to cure pedophiles.
It's great.
And it's just a picture of 45 ammo, you know?
And you know, I agree with that.
And here's the thing, that idea of,
oh, we need to get the pedophiles saved.
You know what that is?
That's called false doctrine, my friend.
Okay, 'cause the Bible makes it very clear
in Romans chapter one that the reprobate mind
is one of the symptoms of that is somebody
that's going after strange flesh.
This is exactly the word I was looking for.
They're going after strange flesh.
And somebody that is going after younger children,
that's somebody that desires strange flesh.
'Cause a normal human being is not attracted to that.
You know, Muhammad, piss be upon him,
was not a normal human being, okay?
He was a demon possessed, false prophet, okay?
And, but when churches have this attitude of,
oh, well, we need to reach out to the pedophiles
and we need to have them go to college
and we need to give them taxpayer dollars
and have them go to the community college
and then they can be rehabilitated
and come back into our society
and go to our churches with our children.
You know, it makes churches look bad.
And you know what our policy here at this church
is that we don't allow pedophiles in our church.
They're not allowed to come.
You know, and there's been various people
that have attended our church
and then we find out that they're a pedophile.
And when that happens, we tell them they can't come back.
You're not allowed to be here.
This is a church and church is for saved people.
Now unsaved people can come, but guess what?
Who can't come?
Pedophiles and faggots can't come.
It's not allowed.
They can't come here.
Why?
Because we actually believe the Bible.
And you know, the Bible is clear.
Jesus said, hey, if anybody offend
one of these little ones, it were better
that a millstone were tied about their neck
and they were cast into the sea.
Okay.
So, you know, that's our policy on pedophiles
is that we don't allow them to be here.
You know, they can go somewhere else.
You know, hopefully they can go to like some insane asylum
or, you know, something like that.
You know, well, really, hopefully we can just get
the laws changed and corrected
to where those kinds of people can be put to death.
You know, that's what I believe in.
You know what?
So I agree with that bumper sticker
that I was telling you about.
The bumper stickers that says
the only good pedophile is a dead pedophile.
You know, and guess what?
You get that idea when you're girded about with truth.
When you've actually read the Bible,
when you've read Judges chapter number 19
and you saw that, you know, and by the way,
pedophiles and homos are the same thing.
When you read Judges chapter number 19
and you saw that the nation of Israel
showed up at the Benjamite.
So like, hey, give us the children of Belial.
Otherwise we're gonna wipe you all out.
And then they have to wipe them all out, right?
And when you realize that these people
are evil, wicked predators
that just wanna prey on people.
They wanna rape them.
They want to entrap them
and do whatever they want with them
'cause they have no conscience
and they just do it over and over and over
and over and over again.
And we even have to have a level system
for these people in our justice system
where we have a level one, level two, level three.
Because well, if they're level three,
that basically just means
they're just gonna keep re-offending
over and over and over again.
And the re-offense rate
is just through the roof with these people.
And it's like, but if you actually just read the Bible
and read Genesis chapter number 19, read Judges 19,
and you read Proverbs chapter number one,
and then you read Romans chapter number one,
people would, if you got your doctrine from the Bible
and you were girded about with truth,
people wouldn't wanna be putting up
with the pedophiles in their church.
And again, that's kind of a doctrine
that we talk about, but why is it,
I mean, there's not that many
independent fundamental Baptist churches in America, right?
I mean, how many independent, King James
independent fundamental Baptist churches
are in the Spokane area?
Like 10, you know, it's not like we're just,
they're coming out of my nose or whatever.
There's not like a ton of them.
There's like maybe 10, right?
And it's like, okay, well, how many of them
are allowing pedophiles in their church?
Well, I know of two of them.
You know, I don't know.
I don't know about the rest,
but I mean, that's 20% that I know of right there.
It's like, what are we doing here?
You know, are the rest of them kicking them out?
I hope so.
I hope so, but I kinda don't think so.
'Cause like, you know, I always hear about these IFP churches
that are allowing, and look, IFP churches
are the most hardcore conservative churches in America.
Okay, and if they are allowing them in,
then it sounds like we have a problem in this area.
I mean, maybe we wouldn't just pound on that subject
if all the independent Baptist churches
just had this subject, right?
Maybe we wouldn't have to pound on it so much.
But they don't, so we do, we pound on it.
Okay, so that's an example of being gird with truth.
And there's Baptist churches out there
that are not gird with truth in this area.
And so they look bad.
You know, normal red-blooded Americans,
when they hear about that kind of thing,
they're just like, I don't know, that's kind of weird.
I don't really, I'm not sure, I don't think I like that.
And you know, guess what?
They shouldn't.
And nobody should like that.
Nobody should want to put up with that.
Why?
Well, it's wrong.
And you know, and pedophilia is one of the things
that even the world is just like condemns,
like no, super evil, super wicked.
You know, when you start coming after the children,
it's like, you know, nobody likes that, okay?
Except for people like what's his face, Richard Dawkins.
Okay, you got Richard Dawkins and his followers
and people that like him and, you know,
'cause they think that we came from monkeys
and so really nothing that happens in this world
is evil anyway 'cause the evil is just a kind of
a construct of your mind.
But you know, normal people, when they hear about that stuff,
they're sickened and they hate it and they don't like it.
They don't want anything to do with it.
You know, like even liberals, they'll be like,
no, I'm not a fan of pedophilia, okay?
I would say even probably most of liberals.
You know, I'm sure there's a lot of liberals
that are like Richard Dawkins, but anyway.
Well, I'm languishing on this point way too long.
All right, so we gotta have truth.
Why?
'Cause you don't wanna be caught
with your doctrinal pants down, okay?
And, you know, being gird about with truth
is also, you know, when you know what you're talking about.
'Cause you could believe all the right doctrines,
but if somebody comes at you with like,
you know, 1 Corinthians 6, I believe, it's,
yeah, 1 Corinthians 6, like, hey, you know,
such were some of you, what about that?
And you just have no answer.
You're kind of caught with your pants down, right?
And so, you know, we need to know the truth.
Why?
So we don't get caught with our pants down.
All right, what's, we're in verse number 14.
It says, "And having the breastplate of righteousness."
And of course, you know, the breastplate of righteousness,
where does that go?
That covers your chest, you know,
your chest and kind of your belly, I guess,
but this whole area is gonna be the breastplate
of righteousness.
Now, of course, there's gonna be,
there's two different types of righteousness.
You know, generally in the Bible,
you've got the righteousness of Christ, right?
Which is basically His perfect righteousness,
which gets imputed unto you when you believe, okay?
When you get saved,
God imputes His righteousness unto you and you have it.
It's there forever, right?
So there's that kind of righteousness.
But I believe what the righteousness
that's talking about in Ephesians 6 here
would basically be like your personal righteousness, okay?
Now, the reason why I would say that
is because, and it could be a dual meaning here,
but I believe that definitely the primary meaning
would be kind of your personal righteousness.
Why do I say that?
Because the breastplate of righteousness
can be taken on and off, right?
Now, when the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you,
that's permanent.
That's that one time deal, that's that being born again,
so that's permanent, right?
And so you don't have to worry about
putting on the righteousness of Christ every single day.
If you're saved, you have it on, you know, it's there.
It's been imputed unto you, it's yours.
Now, your personal righteousness, though,
is a different story,
because your personal righteousness
is what are you doing with your life, okay?
Do you have a personal righteous walk with God?
And, you know, if you don't have
the breast plate of righteousness on,
you have a lack of personal righteousness,
your heart is vulnerable.
You know, your internal organs, you know,
mainly your heart is vulnerable to the attacks of the devil.
And, you know, one way that is very,
that I think is very easily applied to this
is like if you're engaged in certain specific sins, right,
you have lost your personal righteousness.
And a perfect example of this would be any of the sins
that will cause somebody to be kicked out of church, okay?
And it's not exclusively these sins,
but I would say if you're committing any of those sins
that would cause you to be kicked out of church,
you definitely don't have the
blessed plate of righteousness on, why?
Because how are you gonna be in the spiritual war,
in the spiritual fight if you're literally
just kicked out of church?
You're not, you've been taken out of the battle, my friend.
If you have been thrown out of your local
New Testament Baptist Church, you're not in the battle.
You're not fighting the spiritual fight, right?
And that is required because the Bible says
that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, right?
So this is something that can be easily spread, you know,
to other church members and cause problems, you know,
cause if we just, if we just kind of put up with everything,
you know, if people are coming in here, you know,
and they're just, they're a bunch of drunkards
and there are a bunch of, why can't I think of, you know,
you know, what is there, there's drunkenness,
covetousness, railers, extortioners, fornicators,
idolatry, yeah, okay.
You know, you guys got that down good.
I don't know what my problem is, but I mean, if you got,
you know, and the kind of the two big ones
that we really harp on, you know,
was being, you know, drunkenness and fornication.
You know, if we just allow all of that stuff
to happen in church, basically it just says, that's fine.
It's not a big deal.
It's like, I mean, yeah, the Bible says sin,
but we're all sinners, you know,
for all of sin to come short of the glory of God.
It's not really not a big deal, you know,
and how are people going to be healed of their sinful ways
unless we open up the doors, the hospital doors,
spiritual doors, and just let them in
and just have no problem with it, right?
What that does is it tells people that it's not a big deal,
and then they will engage in that themselves.
You know, and so we need to protect our heart
by having the breastplate of righteousness, okay?
You know, and I can't remember exactly where it is,
but I believe it's somewhere in Jeremiah.
The Bible says, "Mine eye effecteth my heart," right?
And so also, you know, we do wanna be careful
of the things that we look at with our eyeballs.
Why?
'Cause the Bible says, "Mine eye effecteth my heart."
And so, you know, looking at certain things
can have an effect on your spiritual life, okay?
It can have an effect on life.
You know, if you're having covetous thoughts
about your neighbor's things,
you know, that can affect your heart
and how you feel about them and yourself, you know?
And with men, you know, this pertains mostly to men,
you know, looking at, you know,
things you shouldn't be like on the internet or whatever,
or, you know, coveting after your neighbor's wife
or lasting after your neighbor's wife,
you know, that can affect your heart.
You know, it can affect how you feel about even your wife.
And so that would be a major problem.
And so we need to have that breastplate of righteousness
to protect our hearts, okay?
Let's see here.
Verse number 15, it says, "And your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace."
Now this is interesting that it says, you know,
you need to have your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
And so there's a couple of interesting points there.
I want to focus on the fact that it's the preparation
of the gospel of peace first.
But it says in 1 Corinthians 9, 16, it says,
"For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of,
for of necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me
if I preach not the gospel."
And so the Bible's saying here, or Paul is saying here,
he's like, hey, the fact that I go soul-winding,
the fact that I'm preaching gospel,
it's not something I could really brag about.
Because it's a necessity, it's not something that's like,
this is only what Delta Force does.
If you're a Delta Force operator, you're just like,
yeah, you know, in my spare time,
go down to Venezuela, capture Maduro.
No big deal, you know, a little humble brag, you know.
Don't want to break my hand, pat myself on the back.
You know, I think that that's probably how some people
think about what soul winning is.
It's like, well, that's Delta Force.
You know, and look here,
we're not Delta Force Baptist Church, okay?
We're a sure foundation Baptist Church,
and you know what, regular Christians come here, okay?
Regular, normal, everyday Christians,
we're not just like Superman Christian,
like, you know, like 99%, you know,
we're not like the Marine Corps Baptist Church,
you know, the few, the proud, you know.
Look, any good Christian can come to our church,
and they can thrive.
And again, being a soul winner is not something
that only Delta Force Christians do.
It's something that everybody
that's an actual follower of Jesus Christ does.
Why?
'Cause Jesus said, he said,
"Follow me and I will make you fishers of man."
Okay.
So, it says, the preparation of the gospel of peace.
And in 1 Corinthians 9:16, he's saying,
"Hey, this is not something the glory of,
this is not something that's just amazing
and just like, wow, only the top tier,
best of the best could ever do this."
No, it's a sin of a necessity.
And it says, "Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel."
And that should be our attitude as well.
It should be a woe unto us if we preach not the gospel.
I mean, if you're just not a soul winner,
it's woe unto you, OK?
And so the preparation of the gospel of peace,
you know how you prepare to preach the gospel?
It's the same way you learn how to do basically anything else.
I mean, how do you learn--
great, good example.
Hey, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, right?
How do you learn how to wrestle?
By wrestling, right?
I mean, that's how I learned to wrestle when I was a kid,
is you go out, and you just wrestle, right?
And so how do you learn how to speak a language?
You just start saying words when you're a kid, right?
I mean, how do you learn how to type?
Well, you just start typing.
You hit the keys on the thing, and eventually you figure out,
oh, OK, you type, right?
And so how do you prepare to be able to preach the gospel?
Well, you do that by going soul winning, OK?
And look, there's different things
you can do to practice beforehand.
And when I first started learning
how to go soul winning, I would watch how to do door
to door soul winning videos.
And I would just watch them, and then I
would practice with myself.
I'd be sitting in my room, and I'd be like,
so what do you have to do to go to heaven?
And I'd be like, oh, well, you've got to be a good person.
Oh, well, you know, the Bible says something different
than that, can I show you?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, the Bible says here, in 1 John 5.13,
it says that you may know that you have eternal life.
I would just practice talking to myself.
I don't know if anybody was listening in their life.
But I'd call the Jewish psychiatrist
to get him in here to see if he has bipolar or what's that
called, schizophrenia.
Jason's got schizophrenia.
I don't know.
But I would like practice in my room, right?
So I was preparing to preach the gospel.
But really, you learn by going out and just doing it, right?
You just learn how to preach the gospel by going out.
And you start out as a silent partner,
and you're watching the other person do it.
You're seeing the scriptures of the turning two.
You see how they handle different questions
in different situations out there.
And you just go out.
You learn by just doing it, right?
But also I want to point out the fact that it says,
and having your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace.
And why does the Bible say that?
Well, because a huge component of actually being
a soul winner and being somebody that preaches the gospel
is that the fact that you're going to people.
You know, when you're preaching the gospel to people,
you're not just like, you don't go to like a booth.
You know, we don't go to like a soul winning booth
and like wait for people to come through the drive-thru
and receive the gospel via drive-thru.
No, we're not doing that.
We're not waiting for them to come to us.
We actually have to go out to them
and we need to confront people with the gospel, okay?
So we need to go, you know, the Bible says,
go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature, right?
And I think, you know, I always mix up those two verses
in Mark 16 and Matthew 28.
I always fuse those together for some reason.
I think I may have just done that.
I'm not totally sure.
But anyways, you know, the Bible says, go, right?
Go ye therefore, teach all nations,
teaching them to observe everything whatsoever
I have taught you.
And I forgot about the baptism in between those two.
So, you know, always just go to the verse
and read it from the Bible,
otherwise you look like a fool like me.
All right, so, but in,
go ahead and turn to Romans chapter number 10 though.
And is this, is this mine?
Does anybody know?
'Cause I'm quite thirsty and that looks very tempting.
But if Remy put his lips on that, I don't know.
(audience laughs)
I don't know, I'm just not feeling it.
All right, all right, so in Romans chapter number 10,
as in verse number 13, it says for,
excuse me, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent?
As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace, bringing
glad tidings of good things.
And so again here, the emphasis in Romans chapter number 10
is put on their feet, right?
Walking two people to preach them the gospel, OK?
And so it's the one that's very full.
I was worried about that in the back of my mind.
I thought, boy, if that other one's halfway full,
I'm cooked, because I have no idea which one it is.
OK, all right.
So once again here, the emphasis is put on the fact
that we go soul winning, right?
The Bible doesn't say like the chapstick of preaching
the gospel.
It doesn't say like the lip balm, or the braces,
or the Minto.
No, it says having your feet shot with the preparation
of the gospel piece, right?
And as a Christian, we need to be
prepared to be able to preach people the gospel.
You never know when an opportunity
is going to present itself to preach people the gospel.
Now, one thing that has never happened to me--
I've never had somebody just straight up ask me, hey,
what must I do to be saved?
That has not personally happened to me.
But there are situations that come up
where it's like, hmm, I can weasel my way in.
I can fit the gospel in here.
I can try to preach the gospel.
This is an opportunity for me to preach the gospel.
And I'm sure that's happened to all of us in our lives.
And so those opportunities do come.
And I'm sure maybe someday somebody will be like,
hey, what must I do to be saved?
You know, I can't wait for that day to come.
That'll be great.
But people usually don't ask that.
You just kind of gotta like force the issue, okay?
I mean, that's just the way it is.
And so, but there's been times in my life
where it's like, okay, well, here's an opportunity
that I have, I'm prepared, I can do it.
I don't have to like, well, let me go home
and get my, no, I'll have to, you know,
you can just preach them the gospel, right?
And so, you know, we want to be Christians
that have our feet shoved
with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
And, you know, being in battle without shoes on
would be a terrible thing.
I mean, just even going to work without your shoes.
I mean, so every once in a while,
it happens on like a weekly basis, it feels like,
but I'll have a dream when I don't have my shoes on,
I'm at work, I'm barefoot.
Has anybody else had those dreams?
No, I'm the only one, now I regret saying that.
(laughing)
But I have a dream every once in a while
where I'm just like at work and I don't have my shoes on.
I'm just like walking around, I'll be like walking,
in my dream, I'll be just be like walking around
a factory somewhere without shoes.
And I know it, I'm like, how do I get back to my house
to get my shoes on, you know, or like I'm at work,
but I'm like in the bathroom and I don't have my shoes on,
I'm like, I don't wanna walk outside,
'cause I don't have my shoes on, this is horrible, right?
And you know, I always, I hate those dreams so much,
but they always happen to me for some reason.
And so, you know, I imagine that's what it's like,
you know, for a Christian that, you know,
they have just no clue how to preach the gospel at all.
It's like they're walking around, you know,
they have a factory job
and they're walking around without shoes on.
They're just like, where's the safety man?
'Cause I gotta avoid him like the plague.
'Cause if he sees me without my shoes on,
I don't have my PPE, this is bad, you know?
He's gonna write me up for sure.
But I don't know why I'm the only human being
in this room that's ever had that dream.
But if you have it, tell me about it,
we can relate and we can have a mutual bond
of shoeless dreams.
But you don't wanna be out there
not just having no clue how to preach the gospel.
And here's the thing, though.
Preaching, being somebody that,
'cause the Bible talks about, hey,
being somebody that always has the hope of Christ within you.
Being able to always give an answer
for the hope of Christ that is in you, okay?
Now, the gospel is, conceptually,
it's a relatively simple idea.
It's the idea that we have all sinned
and earned for ourselves hell,
and that Jesus Christ paid for our sins for us on the cross
with the death, burial, and resurrection.
And all we have to do in order to get that eternal life
and the payment for our sins is to trust in Jesus Christ
that he paid for all of our sins
and his death, burial, and resurrection
is enough to save us forever.
Okay, that's, I mean, conceptually that's,
it's pretty simple, okay?
But, you know, being able to preach the gospel well
is something that takes practice and work, okay?
And so, you know, we should be Christians
that know how to preach the gospel
and can be ready at any time to give,
you know, you might not have every single verse memorized,
but, you know, I don't believe
that you need to have every single verse memorized
in order to give somebody the gospel
and actually have them get saved, right?
If you have a couple, I mean, the Bible does say,
"Hey, faith comes by hearing
"and hearing by the word of God."
But guess what?
You don't need the New Testament memorized
to give people the word of God.
You just need a few verses, my friends.
And, you know, if you could explain the gospel
in a biblical fashion, give them a few verses, you know,
hey, you know, John 3.16,
for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son
that whosoever believed in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life.
You know, you could give them a John, or a Romans 6.23,
you know, for the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord, you know.
I mean, if you could memorize any verse,
memorize that one, my friend.
That's a great verse.
And really, you kind of have the whole gospel
encapsulated in that one verse.
Why?
The fact that, hey, we're sinners,
and, you know, the wages of sin is death.
Well, what is death?
Well, you know, well, it's basically,
it's going to hell, right?
And, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
You know, that's basically the whole gospel
in one little tiny verse, you know.
It's a gift, it's eternal life,
it's through Jesus Christ, you know.
And you could have just explained,
hey, this is what Jesus Christ did for us
in order to give us this gift.
His death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
You know, so if you're gonna memorize any verse,
or if you can only memorize one verse,
I would memorize that one, you know.
But of course, you know,
we can memorize more verses than that.
But we need to be prepared though
to give people the gospel, all right.
Well, we gotta move on here.
We're, I don't know where the time goes, you know.
Remy talked about earlier that the time just goes by.
Well, when you're preaching, it's weird that,
it happens the same way, you know.
It just disappears and goes away.
All right, but so Ephesians,
I believe we're in verse number 16, if I, yeah.
Ephesians 6, 16, it says, "Above all,
"taking the shield of faith,
"wherewith he shall be able to quench
"all the fiery darts of the wicked."
And so, you know, we need to have faith in God's word
to defend ourselves, you know,
from the attacks of the devil.
Now, here's the thing.
I think a lot of people get this idea in their head
that, you know, God is just going to pamper me.
He's just going to take care of me.
And all I have to do is just have faith,
and then my life is just going to be easy.
You know, I'm just going to be able to sit back and relax,
and everything's going to be fine,
and I'm going to have no trouble.
But in reality, you know, the Bible doesn't paint that picture.
You know, something that's going to be able to help you
to quench the fiery darts of the wicked
is to remember the fact that the Bible says that,
"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution."
And so guess what?
If you're going to live a godly Christian life,
persecution will come.
And when you have faith in that,
you believe that that's real.
If you believe, you're like,
okay, I'm going to live a Christian life
and I am going to suffer, right?
There's suffering to be had.
There's suffering coming my way.
There's persecution coming my way,
you know, in the Christian life.
That's the shield of faith that you need.
Why?
Because when the fiery darts come,
you're not just like, what in the world?
I thought God was gonna take care of me.
I thought he was just gonna protect me
from anything bad happening in the world.
How, what's going on?
You're just like, caught off guard
by bad things happening.
But you know, if you have the shield of faith
in what the Bible actually says,
which I mean, that's what the Bible says.
My friend just says, "Yea, all that will have godly
"in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
Like that's kind of like a promise from God
where he's like, you're gonna have persecution
and it's, you're gonna suffer, right?
So when the persecution comes,
you're not just like, "Well, what happened?
"You know, like God failed me."
No, God didn't fail you, he actually told you
that that's what was gonna happen.
And so, you know, that's that shield
that's gonna block the fiery darts of the wicked.
You know, when you realize you're like,
"Hey, you know, persecutions are gonna come
"and you know how I'm gonna react?
"I'm gonna, you know, you're gonna,
"I'm gonna be like what brother Paul said,
"I'm just gonna relax."
You know, the fiery darts came, the persecution came,
I was thrown to the prison.
You know, I'm just gonna be laid back.
You know, I'm just gonna start singing to God
here in the prison.
I'm not gonna make a big deal out of it.
I'm not gonna, you know, sit in my, you know,
I'm not gonna sit around and feel sorry for myself
'cause I had some persecution come my way.
I'm just gonna, you know, I'm gonna chill out
and I'm gonna be like, okay, you know, this is part of life.
This is part of God's plan.
This is part of the race that he set before me
and I'm just gonna deal with it, right?
So that's, you know, that's the shield of faith, right?
Is the fact that you actually have faith
in what God actually said, okay?
That is what's gonna quench those fiery darts
of the wicked because, you know, again,
God didn't promise us this just, you know,
lavish lifestyle where just everything is handed to us
on a silver platter.
No, that is not the Christian life, my friend.
You know, parts of the Christian life can be easy, you know?
There's gonna be times when you're not necessarily
just going through a battle.
There's gonna be times in the Christian life
when you're not in a fight of some kind.
You're not in the evil day all the time, right?
But what's the shield of faith for?
It's for when the evil day does come.
And guess what?
When the fiery darts start flying,
that's not the time to go looking for your shield.
You need to have your shield on before the darts fly, right?
So that means you gotta have it on all the time.
You know, you're walking around.
It's like, hey, why do you have that shield, bro?
Are you worried something's gonna happen?
It's like, yeah, that's why I got it on.
Why do people carry concealed weapons?
Are you just some kind of paranoid conspiracy theorist?
They're coming, man!
No, you're just a prudent human being.
You know, you don't have to have tin foil on your head
to realize that trouble can come in life, right?
And tin foil does not make a good helmet.
And that, you know what?
That's the perfect transition
for I think it's the next piece of armor.
Verse number 17, it says, take that, oh, yes it is.
Imagine that.
So take the helmet of salvation, which is not tin foil,
the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, okay?
So the helmet of salvation, you know,
so the helmet of salvation I don't believe
is literally somebody just getting saved, right?
Because, and the reason why I don't believe that
is because the helmet of salvation is a piece of armor
that you can put on, you can take it off.
Put it on, take it off, you know?
And so, you know, salvation's not that way, obviously.
You don't, you know, get saved.
You know, you wake up in the morning,
time for battle, you know, get saved.
Go out to battle all day, get home,
you know, back to the tents or whatever.
And you're like, all right, unsaved.
Hope I don't die in the night.
You know, it's basically, what I would say
the helmet of salvation is, is knowing you're saved
and having confidence in your salvation.
'Cause look, don't Christians doubt their salvation?
You know, especially, you know, maybe if the first few years
after somebody gets saved, you know,
maybe they doubt their salvation from time to time.
You know, and I was kind of that way for a little while
where every once in a while I'd be like,
am I really saved?
You know, and people have doubts about their salvation.
Okay, now somebody that's having doubts
about their salvation, they're not necessarily
just gonna be the most effective warrior
in the Christian fight if they're having doubts
about their salvation.
And so, you know, as Christians, you know,
you should just kind of remind yourself for once in a while
of what the gospel is and why you're saved.
And then guess what?
You're not gonna have doubts about your salvation.
Now, you know, I understand, like people,
a lot of times when saved people,
when they're having doubts about their salvation,
you know, and if somebody tells you
that they're having doubts about their salvation,
the reason why is very important, okay?
Now, the reason why I personally would have doubts
about my salvation is I would be thinking like,
did I believe?
Did I truly believe?
Like, I gotta make sure I actually believe, right?
And so, you know, every once in a while I'd be like,
okay, God, if I didn't believe then, I believe now.
And I'm sure, you know,
most of us have probably done that in our lives,
you know, where you're just like, you know,
'cause look, like, you read about hell
and hell is terrifying.
Hell is horrible, like, you know,
you think about hell, you're just like, oh!
You're like, okay,
I just wanna make sure I don't go there, you know,
'cause I mean, you know, I'm not the only one
that thinks this way, right?
You're like, hell is just the most horrible thing ever.
I really don't wanna go there.
That would be the worst thing ever.
And this, you know, sometimes I'll tell this
to people at soul wedding when they kind of,
they're like, oh, you know, I think I was already saved.
No, you weren't!
Just get saved, you know?
But I'm like, hey, look, if there's a 1% chance
that you're not saved, you don't wanna take that risk.
You just don't, why?
'Cause hell is that bad.
You know, the Seventh-day Adventists are wrong about hell.
You know, if hell, if you just burn up and you're gone,
you know, you basically,
you just don't even believe in hell at all.
Why? 'Cause I mean, what is hell?
It's fiery torment.
And if the fiery torment ends after you,
basically hell would just be like somebody
that was burned up in a fire.
Now, is that hell?
No, it's not hell.
It's not somebody that dies in a fire.
I'm sorry, that's not what hell is.
It's not somebody that dies in a fire.
'Cause you know, they're on fire for a few minutes,
it's horrible, it's painful, and then it's over.
I'm sorry, but that's just dying, that's called death.
There's a lot of people that have died
horrible, painful deaths, okay?
That is not hell.
Hell is when your soul and body are cast in a lake of fire
and you're there forever.
And the Bible says the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up forever and ever, right?
And it says we're the beast and false prophet are,
meaning that they're currently, okay?
So again, where was it going with this?
What was they even talking about?
They're talking about hell and it's eternal,
but why was I talking about hell?
Oh, doubting your salvation.
Yeah, that's the helmet of salvation.
That's what we're talking about, yes.
So, you know, you doubt your salvation
and you think about how terrible hell is,
you're just like, okay, well, let me get resaved.
Now, if somebody doubts their salvation,
you're like, hey, why are you doubting your salvation?
And if, look, if somebody comes to you
and tells you they're doubting their salvation,
you shouldn't just be like, ah,
don't worry about it, brother, you're saved.
Everything's fine.
There's no way you could be unsaved.
No, take that seriously.
Why, why are you doubting your salvation?
Okay, if it's like, well, I'm just not good enough.
You know, I was sinning the other day
and I just feel like I'm unsaved.
It's like, okay, next question would be,
okay, well, what do you think it takes to go to heaven?
'Cause if you're like, well, you know,
you feel like you're sinning
and you're kind of not good enough,
so you feel like you're unsaved,
I mean, that's a problem, right?
And, you know, so, you know,
you should figure out why people are doubting salvation.
Now, people are like, hey, you know,
I just don't know if I believed, right?
Which is a thought that people can have.
It's like, okay, so they're, when they say,
they're kind of telling you that they believe
salvation is by believing, right?
And so, you know, it's like, okay, well,
you probably did believe, if you believe that it's by,
you probably did, but, you know,
so, again, it depends on why they believe
that they're unsaved.
And, you know, if somebody is,
they're just really worried about it,
and they're like, I don't know if I believe.
It's like, okay, well, let's believe now.
I mean, you're not, if you're already saved,
you're not gonna undo your salvation,
but if you're not saved, it's like, all right,
let's get that helmet on,
let's make it so you know you're saved, all right?
Let's get this nailed down, okay?
And so, but again, like, you know,
us in our Christian lives, we need to put on that helmet,
we need to nail down that we know
that we're saved, okay?
'Cause again, downing your salvation
is gonna be something that's gonna be a stumbling block
to you leading a Christian life and working for God, okay?
And so, and you know, we need to remind ourselves
what the gospel is, and if anybody out there
is like actually downing their salvation,
you know, they need to like, you know,
they need to make sure that they're saved, okay?
They need to make sure that they know
what the Bible says about salvation
and that they've actually believed,
you know, that they believe in eternal life,
that it's completely free and that it's trusting
in Jesus Christ.
So, you know, again, we need to put on that helmet
of salvation so that we can know that we are saved.
Let's see here, verse number 17,
"And the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God."
Now, this is kind of the last piece of armor here,
is the sword of the spirit.
And of course, it's not really like a piece of armor
so much as it is a weapon.
But, you know, the word of God is the only weapon
that we have in our arsenal to fight
against the wiles of the devil.
And so it's important for us to actually to know.
And, you know, a lot of these pieces of armor
kind of go along with knowing the Bible, right?
I mean, you have the girdle of truth.
Like, if you just have no clue what the Bible says,
your belt's pretty loose there, buddy.
You gotta tighten that thing up.
You know, and of course,
that's something that happens over time.
You know, like when I became a Baptist,
I didn't just know everything about the Bible instantly.
Of course, then I don't even know everything
about the Bible now.
You know, I was talking with Ryan before the service.
You know, I kinda, back before I got saved,
I kinda thought I knew the Bible.
Yeah, you know, I know about Genesis 11.
You know, I know about Genesis 6.
You know, I know that Noah built the ark
in less than 100 years, and not 120 years
like these fools out there think,
because they don't know their Bible.
You know, I thought I knew the Bible.
But you know, now years later,
I've read the Bible multiple times.
I'm like, hmm, yeah, I know a little bit of the Bible.
Like, I know some, not much.
So, but you know, knowing the truth,
knowing, having your belt girded about with truth
is something that takes time, you know?
And it'd be like, okay, you know, being like a fencer,
you know, somebody that fights with a sword,
that's something that takes a lot of practice and time,
right, and so knowing your Bible,
being a skillful user of the word of God
is something that is going to take time, right?
And so, but you know, the sword of the spirit is,
it's an offensive weapon,
but it also doubles as a defensive weapon.
You know, of course, we know that when Jesus Christ
was tempted of the devil,
the devil would pose him these questions.
Hey, you know, if thou be the son of God,
you know, turn these rocks into bread,
and Jesus would always answer, you know,
the Bible says, you know, thou shall, you know,
and of course I can't quote anything
of what he said perfectly, but basically he's like,
hey, you know, hey, worship me,
and I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth,
and he says, hey, you know, the Bible says
that thou shall worship God only,
and him that thou shall only serve, right?
And so, you know, he says, hey, turn the rocks into bread,
you know, man is not lived by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,
right, and so, you know, he's using quoting scriptures
in order to defend himself from the devil.
And so, but it's also gonna be our offensive tool,
you know, people coming at us with any type of false doctrine,
hey, we got the Bible.
You know, we're not coming at people with, you know,
our own wisdom and our own philosophy and all this stuff.
No, we're coming at them with Bible.
You know, hey, how come we don't believe
in Christian Zionism?
'Cause of the Bible, my friend.
We're coming at, we're attacking Christian Zionism
with the Bible.
You know, how come we don't believe in the restoration
of the pedophile community?
Well, 'cause we believe in the Bible, my friend.
We're attacking that with the Bible.
You know, hey, you know, how come we don't believe
in workspace salvation?
Because of the Bible, my friend, that's why.
Thus saith the Lord.
So, you know, so those are all the different pieces
of the armor of God's word.
And you know, again, these are things that we need
to put on, you know, every single day.
You know, you don't just put it on one time
and then you just kind of lay back.
No, every day, you know, we're fighting
in that spiritual warfare.
We gotta put on the armor of God so we can be prepared
to fight against the wiles of the devil.
Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
All right, dear Heavenly Father,
I thank you for this day, Lord.
I thank you for everything you've done for us, Lord.
We thank you for your word that you've given us
that we can read about the armor of God,
that we can put it on every day to go out and fight
in spiritual warfare for you, Lord.
And I pray that you please help us all
to do that every day this week and this year to come.
And dear Jesus' name, amen.
- Listen, our last one is on number five.
When I survey the wondrous cross,
except for that cut part, it was a little harsh,
but song number five, when I survey the wondrous cross.
Song number five, when I survey the wondrous cross.
Song number five on the first.
♪ When I survey the ♪
Singing for the rhyme, would you close your water prayer?